I broke out my newly-completed single speed for her maiden voyage Sunday morning. We had a Noreaster on Fri/Sat, so no riding, but Sunday was beautiful - sunny, mid 20's. Thanks to living on a sand bar, the trails drain really well, and thanks to the frosty temps, were for the most part hard and fast (except where there was snow).

The single speed was pretty cool - I think I'm going to get addicted very quickly. The bike probably weighs about 28/29 lbs. The steel frame is going to prevent me from getting it super light, but I have a heavy fork up front, and medium weight wheelset. If I get a light air fork and a lightweight wheelset (with some discipline to stay off the rocks!), I could probably get her down to 24-25 lbs. I have it geared at 34-18 right now, which seems to be the consensus choice around here. If she were lighter, I might go 34-17 to spin a little faster in the flats - I really didn't have as much trouble on hills as I thought I might. I've been running my fully in a higher gear in anticipation of using the SS, so I guess my legs are a bit stronger than I thought they were going to be.

On the flats and smooth downhills, this baby just takes off from under me. I have high rolling tires on there that really zip.

I can't wait to ride it again. I figure I'll switch on and off - concentrate on speed with the SS, and go a bit more freeride/aggressive XC on my fully.

Good times.

_________________"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" - Jimi Hendrix

You should turn it into a fixie...there are a few guys in Richmond that are very good mountain bikers that ride fixie mountain bikes...it sounds a bit crazy to me but they say they have more control...so long as they don't wack logs with their cranks.

Wiferoo made vegan lasagna last night (orgasmic) and I got a bottle of wine and we talked about how the world is so f-ed up that Ahnold Schwarzenegger is making a lot of sense these days. He philosophically tore Rush Limbaugh a new one yesterday, while John Bolton was on John Stewart earlier in the week defending everything and anything conservative.
It dawned on me that there are 2 very distinct philosophies at work in government. The vast majority of people on both sides of the aisle are there to promote their side's agenda. The minority are working to promote what the majority of people want, which is, I suspect, somewhere in the middle. I believe that elected officials should try to represent what their constituents want, not what their party wants. Bush has surrounded himself with "yes" people, whose loyalty to him and the Right is valued above what the country wants. Bush thinks he and his folk know better than anyone else. Yet he won the election by a hair - thus he's ignoring half the people in this country.
And on that tip, any time you ask a politician why they won't talk to people like the Pres of Iran, they say it's because they "don't negotiate with terrorists". I think it's because they have no balls. You think Ahnold would be afraid to tell that guy what time it is? I don't think so. Kristy said that not only would he not be afraid to meet with him, he'd go over there wearing his Terminator outfit and scare the sh-t out of them. Now, I'm not touting Ahnold as some political savior, I just think he's got the right idea as far as trying to represent his constituents, rather than his party. He's pissing off a lot of Republicans in doing so. Good for him.

Wed: back on the squish and boy did it feel good. Another 10 or so at a decent pace.

Thur: played soccer for the first time in probably 8-9 months. It was fun - I wasn't in bad soccer shape, and I stretched a lot before and some after, so I am not as sore as I thought, which is good because I have a group ride tonight (pain train), then I'm going to do a solo interval ride in the AM, followed by leading a group ride for off-capers.

_________________"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" - Jimi Hendrix

I'm not coming around - that would have meant that I was somewhere else to start with, which I wasn't, as far as I know.

I broke the fork on my squish. I'm not sure of the exact moment that I broke it, but it's a tiny little part in the rebound-damping system that is broke, and yet it makes the fork unrideable. And I don't know if I can get a replacement part or not. Pretty f-ed up. So I'll be on my SS until I get the fork fixed, if it's even fixable. Rode SS today and it was glorious. It's such an accurate bike - it goes exactly where I want it, through whatever gnarly sections. It's like cutting the trails with a scalpel. My squish is like cutting the trails with a spoon.

Going snowboarding monday and tuesday for probably the final time this season Should be awesome in the AM, and a little sloppy in the PM, but we'll still have fun.

_________________"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" - Jimi Hendrix

Just back from snowboarding. One ok day, one awesome day. It was slushy, no doubt, but the mountain was empty so Kristy and I could haul ass down the slopes pretty much all day. And the bare and soft spots made it more of a challenge. I have a funny video of Kristy taking a spill - hope she lets me post it.

_________________"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" - Jimi Hendrix

Had a "front porch" gig Wed night. Kind of like an open mic deal. Lot of people from work showed up. I played and sang really well I think. The sound system was really nice, so as soon as I started I felt good. Everyone else sounded good too. Good night of original music.

I'm on my SS until my squish's fork gets fixed. did about 15 mi last night with an expert racer. He's on a custom SS 29er - sweet ride. we did a decent pace -- he's cool not to drop me. My back is getting a bit stronger each time out, so I hope that soon it won't be an issue.

Group ride tonight, road ride tomorrow AM, then a "fun" group mtb ride. Then a group mtb ride sunday. Oh, and some yard work, hanging with my friends, hiking with the dogs, sleeping, eating - you know, stuff to fill in the time between rides.

_________________"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" - Jimi Hendrix

Rode all weekend, hiked with the dogs, did part 1 of my 4 part spring yard cleaning project. So a good weekend all around.
Took monday off, played soccer tuesday, rained hard wed, rode 15 mi thurs, 15 more today (trounced a guy who wouldn't stop talking about how great he is).
I love the singlespeed - incredible workout. I've lost about 7-8 lbs in the last 3 weeks riding that thing. And I can see myself getting ripped up a bit too. Gotta start eating a bit more though - don't want to lose too much.
Man, being vegan frickin' rules! Not that I have to tell y'all that.

_________________"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" - Jimi Hendrix

Last edited by finbarrio on Sat Jun 16, 2007 7:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

There are some theories out there about the evolution of consciousness. Some say that humans are currently in a stage of "power" consciousness, whereby we are obsessed with controlling and exuding power over others. The next stage of human consciousness would be one quite different - an "ethics" consciousness, where compassion and love rule the day and displays of power and control over another are revolting.

This theory make a lot of sense to me. It seems definite that there are many people obsessed with power and control in this world. But it seems like every day I see the ethics consciousness challenging that. More and more people becoming veggie/vegan, eating organic food, buying fair trade items, advocating for the poor, for gay rights, the list goes on. While it'd be nice to live in a world where ethics was more prevalent, I'm definitely glad I'm contributing to the evolution of this consciousness.

The evolution of our species seems much bigger and more important to me than any religion or political system. In fact, but for their hold on the majority of people in this world, those seem almost trivial in comparison.

_________________"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" - Jimi Hendrix

How many of our decisions/attitudes/emotions are direct products of our egos? "I took that job because it's a good career move, and now I'll be able to afford that Lexus "; "I deserve that promotion more than him"; "I hate that arrogante jerk!" -- all of these can be tied directly back to a desire to inflate or defend our ego.

Our egos are carefully nurtured from early on as we're taught to be better, to get ahead, to exert our power over others. This literally warps our sense of reality - we see reality from the viewpoint of our ego, rather than as simply an observer of the happenings of life. The ego viewpoint sparks emotions in us that don't match the reality of a situation.

Think about some decisions and emotions you made or had recently. Maybe you applied for a new job, got in an argument, felt cheated or spurned by someone. How did it tie back to your ego? If you took ego out of the equation, how might you have decided or reacted differently? How would that have affected your attitude?

Get pissed off at someone in traffic? Is it because they were impeding on your precious progress? There's ego! Think about how your ego prompted your reaction and affected your attitude.

So maybe you start to get a hold on how YOUR ego affects YOUR attitude or decisions. Now consider that others are also driven by their egos. Let's say your coworker gets pissed at you for an invalid reason. If you take your ego out of the equation, and then resign yourself to the fact that it's likely THEIR ego at the root of the problem, how might you react differently? Will you be calmer than you otherwise might have been? I know I would. And then invariably the person will see the err in their ways - and either apologize, or spiral deeper into the ego abyss. Either way, you'll move on with a clearer sense of what really happened, and a satisfaction that you handled the situation well.

Ego can often be a hindrance to happiness. It can ignite negative emotions inside of us, or puff us up with false pride so that we make decisions NOT based on how it will affect our happiness, but how it will "make us look." Try to remove ego from your path, and see if it results in a calmness, a clearing of your viewpoint and intuitive abilities, and a general enhanced sense of contentment.

_________________"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" - Jimi Hendrix

They're all the same; without the other, each would cease to exist.
They need each other to survive.
They need each other's pet issues to thrive.
They need the media to keep them alive.
They need religion to choose a side.
They don't care about you - they care about their own power.

It's our Coliseum - we yell when our side loses, yell when our side wins, we yell no matter what, because what we're yelling is "MORE!"
And so the issues persist with no progress.
And the sides dig in deeper, thankful for our enabling.

How much longer will we let this go on?
When will we un-pause this program and resume our evolution?

_________________"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" - Jimi Hendrix

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